View source for Babel-17

{{Short description|1966 science fiction novel by Samuel Delany}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{infobox book | 
| name          = Babel-17
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = Babel-17.jpg
| caption       = First edition
| author        = [[Samuel R. Delany]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = Jerome Podwill
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        = 
| genre         = [[Science fiction]] 
| publisher     = [[Ace Books]]
| release_date  = May 17, 1966<ref>{{cite journal |date=May 17, 1966 |title=Books Today |journal=[[The New York Times]] |page=44 }}</ref>
| english_release_date =
|isbn=
| pages         = 173
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = 
}}
'''''Babel-17''''' is a 1966 [[science fiction]] novel by American writer [[Samuel R. Delany]] in which the [[Linguistic relativity|Sapir–Whorf hypothesis]] (that language influences thought and perception) plays an important part.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Steble, Janez.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/898669235|title=Novi val v znanstveni fantastiki ali eksplozija žanra New wave in science fiction or the explosion of the genre : doktorska disertacija|date=2014|publisher=[J. Steble]|oclc=898669235}}</ref> It was joint winner of the [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]] in 1967 (with ''[[Flowers for Algernon]]'')<ref name="WWE-1966">{{cite web
| url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1966 
| title = 1966 Award Winners & Nominees
| work = Worlds Without End
| access-date=2009-08-24
}}</ref> and was also nominated for the [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]] in 1967.<ref name="WWE-1967">{{cite web
| url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1967 
| title = 1967 Award Winners & Nominees
| work = Worlds Without End
| access-date=2009-08-24
}}</ref>

Delany hoped to have ''Babel-17'' originally published as a single volume with the novella ''[[Empire Star]]'', but this did not happen until a 2001 reprint.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Delany|first1=Samuel R.|title=Babel-17 / Empire Star|date=December 2001|publisher=Vintage Books / Random House|isbn=0-375-70669-0}}</ref>

==Plot summary==
{{More plot|date=May 2023}}

Babel-17 is a language that can be used as a weapon by alien invaders during an interstellar war against the Human Alliance. Chinese starship captain, linguist, poet, and telepath Rydra Wong begins to learn the language. After several attacks have been made by the invaders who speak Babel-17, she soon realizes the potential of the language to change one's thought process and provide speakers with certain powers, and she is recruited by her government to discover how the enemy is infiltrating and sabotaging strategic sites. As her understanding of the language increases, she is able to predict where the next attack will be and gathers a team to go to the predicted location of the attack.

Initially Babel-17 is thought to be a code used by enemy agents. Rydra realizes it is a language in and of itself. During their mission, Rydra realizes there is a traitor aboard the ship. After escaping the predicted attack, Rydra and her crew are captured by a pirate ship called a shadow-ship. While on the ship, Rydra meets a man called "The Butcher", a crew-member and ex-convict who does not use the word "I". After teaching The Butcher the word "I," Rydra, The Butcher, and her crew leave the ship during a battle. Rydra and The Butcher, who already unknowingly spoke Babel-17, are rescued but seem incredibly altered. While their bodies are present, their minds seem elsewhere. Their ability to speak Babel-17 has altered their minds and we learn that it was "The Butcher" who was the traitor on board the ship all along. Babel-17 is discovered to be a language that not only helps you understand the enemy, but become the enemy; the Butcher is a human who turns out to have been "adapted" by Babel-17 to work as a saboteur against the Human Alliance. But Wong's linguistic powers are great enough that she succeeds in resisting yet also comprehending Babel-17, and ultimately in defeating the language's alien creators: Wong herself harnesses Babel-17 to reprogram the aliens' saboteurs.

The novel deals with several issues related to the peculiarities of language, how conditions of life shape the formation of words and meaning, and how words themselves can shape the actions of people.

==Influence==
Delany's novel influenced a generation of writers: ''[[Native Tongue (Suzette Haden Elgin novel)|Native Tongue]]'' by [[Suzette Haden Elgin]]{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}, ''[[The Dispossessed]]'' by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}, ''[[Embassytown]]'' by [[China Miéville]], "In Luna Bore Coda" by Joshua Nilles, and, more evidently, the short story "[[Story of Your Life]]" by [[Ted Chiang]]{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}. Language as a weapon was adapted as a plot device in [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[Snow Crash]]''. It also resembles a few preceding science fiction novels which deal with how languages shape the political and cultural stratum of societies, such as ''[[The Languages of Pao]]'' by [[Jack Vance]] or ''[[Anthem (novella)|Anthem]]'' by [[Ayn Rand]].

In turn, the use of language is similar to Robert Heinlein's novella ''[[Gulf (novella)|Gulf]]'', in which superior language leads to superior thinking: both works make use of the "strong" Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [[Linguistic relativity]].

== Language of Babel-17 ==
The language portrayed at the center of ''Babel-17'' contains interesting linguistic features including the absence of a pronoun or any other construction for "I". The heroine finds her perceptions (and even her physical abilities) altered once she has learned Babel-17. Babel-17 also seems to alter the worldview of those who speak it. When Rydra speaks in Babel-17, time slows down because she is able to communicate with much more precision. The language also not only allows one to express ideas much quicker but seems to also change one's worldview.

Delany describes himself as having been "a die-hard believer in the Sapir-Whorf", which was in the air at the time, without his ever having heard the term; eventually, once he read about it, he decided that "it was just incorrect", because "it fails to take into account the whole economy of discourse, which is a linguistic level that accomplishes lots of the soft-edge conceptual contouring around ideas, whether we have available a one- or two-word name for it or only a set of informal many-word descriptions that are not completely fixed", which motivated his later works considering language: "The realization of the flaws in the Sapir-Whorf, in that they caused me to begin considering the more complex linguistic mechanisms of discourse, you might say gave me my lifetime project."<ref>[https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6088/the-art-of-fiction-no-210-samuel-r-delany The Art of Fiction No. 210], 2011, ''[[The Paris Review]]''</ref>

==Other media==
In 2014, the work ''Babel-17'' was told in tandem with a partial biography of Samuel R. Delany's early years in the form of a play ''The Motion of Light in Water'', based on a 1988 [[The Motion of Light in Water|autobiography with the same title]], produced by Elbow Room, an Australian theatre company directed by Marcel Dorney.<ref>{{citation| url=http://www.theatreworks.org.au/what-if-elbow-rooms-ray-chong-nee-on-the-motion-of-light-in-water/ |title=What if? Elbow Room's Ray Chong Nee on The Motion of Light in Water |website=Theatre Works |date=3 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815142405/https://www.theatreworks.org.au/what-if-elbow-rooms-ray-chong-nee-on-the-motion-of-light-in-water/|archive-date=2020-08-15|url-status=dead}}.</ref>

[[Rush (band)|Rush]] drummer and lyricist [[Neil Peart]] noted that ''Babel-17'' was one of his early literary influences, and was an important part of the crafting of the band's hugely successful ''[[2112 (album)|2112]]'' album.<ref>{{citation |url=https://rushvault.com/2013/11/23/with-rush-forget-ayn-rand-think-samuel-r-delany/ |title=With Rush, Forget Ayn Rand; Think Samuel R. Delany |website=Rush Vault |date=3 November 2013}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Clute |first=John |author-link=John Clute |author2=Peter Nicholls |author-link2=Peter Nicholls (writer)  |title=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |location=New York |publisher=[[St Martin's Press]] |page=1386 |year=1995 |edition=2 |isbn=0-312-13486-X}}
* {{cite book |last=Clute |first=John |author-link=John Clute |author2=Peter Nicholls |author-link2=Peter Nicholls (writer)  |title=The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |location=Danbury, CT |publisher=Grolier |type = [[CD–ROM]] |year=1995 |isbn=0-7172-3999-3}}
* {{cite book |last= Nicholls |first=Peter | author-link=Peter Nicholls (writer) |title=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |  publisher=Granada Publishing Ltd. |page=672 |year=1979 |location= [[St Albans]], Hertfordshire, UK |isbn=0-586-05380-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Jakubowski |first=Maxim |author-link=Maxim Jakubowski |author2=Malcolm Edwards |author2-link=Malcolm Edwards |title=[[The Complete Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy Lists]] |location= St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK |publisher=Granada Publishing Ltd. |page=350 |year=1983 |isbn=0-586-05678-5}} 
* {{cite book |last=Pringle |first=David |author-link=David Pringle |title=The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction |location=London | publisher=Grafton Books Ltd. |page=407 |year=1990 |isbn=0-246-13635-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Tuck |first=Donald H. |author-link=Donald H. Tuck |title=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy | location=Chicago |publisher=Advent |page=136 |year=1974 |isbn=0-911682-20-1}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://www.oneringcircus.com/b17_errata.html Errata for Babel-17, approved by the author.]
* [http://www.tor.com/2009/06/23/still-exciting-today-samuel-delanys-babel-17/ 2009 retrospective review] by [[Jo Walton]]: "Babel 17 was published in 1966, the year in which I learned to talk."
* {{ISFDB title|2394}}
* [http://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=324 Babel-17] at Worlds Without End

{{Samuel R. Delany}}
{{Nebula Award Best Novel 1965-1980}}

[[Category:1966 American novels]]
[[Category:1966 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Ace Books books]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into plays]]
[[Category:American philosophical novels]]
[[Category:Fiction about language]]
[[Category:Nebula Award for Best Novel–winning works]]
[[Category:Novels by Samuel Delany]]